Oren Peli’s supernatural found-footage horror film Paranormal Activity spawned a franchise that includes seven installments, with an eighth, Paranormal Activity: The Other Side, set for a 2022 release; here's the complete timeline of the franchise, explained. The films follow the history of two sisters named Katie and Kristi who are tormented by a demonic entity, "Toby." As the franchise has expanded with various sequels, prequels, and parallel installments, the exact timeline of events is now complicated, to say the least.
The franchise shares a basic premise: supernatural occurrences that are caught "found-footage" — such as security systems, webcams, and even a Kinect system in Paranormal Activity 4. Generally, the Paranormal Activity movies assisted in popularizing the found-footage subgenre of horror films in the 2000s and 2010s. With others such as As Above, So Below (2014) and V/H/S (2012), the Blumhouse Productions franchise continues to prove to be one of their most popular and profitable horror IPs.
The 2021 installment Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin is a soft reboot of sorts since it is the first installment in the franchise to feature a new demonic entity: Asmodeus, based on the real-life Abrahamic dogma. The next title in the franchise, The Other Side, is expected to return to Paranormal Activity's core story, centering on "Toby" once again and continuing the story from where Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension left off.
The prequel to the Paranormal Activity franchise, Paranormal Activity 3, dives deeper into the history of the demonic entity following the main characters of Kristi and Katie. It is set in September 1988, nearly twenty years prior to the first two films. At the time, the two sisters are living with their mother, Julie, and her boyfriend, Dennis. Kristi begins to see an imaginary friend named “Toby” (sometimes spelled "Tobi") who is actually the demon that will plague the family for years to come.
Dennis discovers a symbol that belonged to a coven of witches that brainwashes young women of child-bearing age into having sons and promising them to a dark entity. This bit of information explains the disappearance of Kristi’s son in Paranormal Activity 2. The ending of Paranormal Activity 3 culminates in the family seeking refuge at Julie’s mother’s house — only to find that she is a member of a coven of witches and is responsible for all of the evil the family experienced in September of 1988.
Initially, Paranormal Activity 2 appears to be a sequel to the original — until the twist ending reveals it takes place a few months before the events of the first, eventually merging together. Conversations about Katie and Micah’s experiences with a supernatural presence happen throughout the second film. Furthermore, when Katie disappears at the end of Paranormal Activity — being controlled by the demon entity Toby — the sequel reveals that she went to her sister Kristi’s house to take her son, Hunter.
Prior to these events, Kristi and her family are introduced shortly after she delivers Hunter, their first-born son. Shortly after his birth, paranormal occurrences begin to plague their home to the point where family members are physically attacked. Ultimately, Katie takes Hunter and she murders the majority of the family while seemingly under possession.
The first installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise is set in October of 2006. It follows Katie and Micah, a young couple who have recently moved into a new home together. As the film progresses, the supernatural occurrences around the home grow increasingly stronger to the point where Katie becomes possessed. The original Paranormal Activity ends with her throwing Micah into the camera and supposedly disappearing. While there are other alternative endings, they are not canonical to the franchise. Therefore, this timeline follows the original theatrical ending of Micah dying and Katie disappearing.
The fourth installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise seems to be a bit out of place and somewhat unimportant to the storyline, being set in November of 2011. Except, it reveals that Katie has moved to the suburbs and lives across the street from the Nelson family, who is now plagued by the spirit named “Toby” that only the youngest member, Wyatt, can see. Katie has, in some way, acquired a child to pose as her son named Robbie who becomes friends with Wyatt.
It is revealed that Wyatt and Robbie were both adopted and that Wyatt’s real name is actually Hunter. At some point between the second film and now, Katie lost Hunter, and is now trying to get him back in order to sacrifice him to the demons she and her coven worship. Before the audience finds out what happens to the Nelson family, Hunter/Wyatt, and Katie, the screen cuts to black. Paranormal Activity 4 still leaves holes in the timeline of the franchise that could get resolved in the upcoming installment.
Departing from the premise of the first four installments, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones follows a Latino community in California dealing with the aftermath of eighteen-year-old Jesse Arista receiving the mark of a demonic cult. The movie is set after the events of the previous movies; Jesse discovers a witch’s altar in his home and sees the apparitions of a young Kristi and Katie. However, The Marked Ones introduces a new concept in the franchise: time travel. When a possessed Jesse forces his friend Hector Estrella through a marked door, the latter finds himself in the setting of the first film, Katie and Micah’s home. Hector takes on a role in the original Paranormal Activity ending. Thus, the fifth installment loops back to the first, while also adding the larger threat of the Midwives.
What was thought to be the finale in the Paranormal Activity franchise, The Ghost Dimension was released in 2015, but is set in 2013. It follows the Fleeges family who have relocated to a new home in California. Shortly after moving in, they discover videotapes of Katie and Kristi being initiated into the coven of witches called Midwives twenty-five years prior. The family discovers that the home they are living in was built on top of Kristi and Katie’s home that burned down in 1992; adult Katie sold them the new house that was built on the land. Like in The Marked Ones, there is time travel in Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, with the climax transporting characters back in time to a pivotal moment for Kristi, Katie and Toby.
Jumping ahead to March 2021, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin is the most recent in the Paranormal Activity timeline. There is no time travel in this entry — just the culture clash of Margot, Chris, and Dale staying with an Amish community while Margot investigates her roots. The movie features a new antagonist, Asmodeus, who could be connected to Toby and the Midwives; however, at this point, it appears Next of Kin is a parallel story of possession in the Paranormal Activity franchise.
Paranormal Activity’s timeline is a long and confusing one with many twists and turns that transform it from a linear progression to a time-traveling, portal jumping, inter-dimensional adventure through the paranormal. While the franchise has introduced various alternate endings, with the introduction of more installments, they become defunct and non-canonical. While Paranormal Activity has utilized its sequels, prequels, and parallel films to fill holes in the timeline, some of these holes still exist. With an eighth installment arriving in 2022, The Other Side could either complicate the timeline even more or give a sound resolution to the entire franchise.
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